Advice on unisex / gender neutral / androgynous clothing?

[♥︎ SarahD ♥︎]

Hai all! *hugs* <3

So the time has come for me to ditch the old and get myself a whole new wardrobe!  Literally - I've thrown out the crappy old cloth wardrobe I've had for years and bought a nice new customisable PAX wardrobe from Ikea lol! (assembled it the other day - it was a lot bigger than I was expecting lol but it fits nicely in my room )

Now I want to get rid of all my old clothes and replace them with new stuff, hopefully in time for the new year.  I'd like to move away from the primarily male clothing I have right now, and towards a more unisex / gender-neutral / androgynous style as a stepping stone towards femininity.

I still live with my parents and I'm not out to anyone yet, so what I'm really after is "getting away with as much femininity as possible while still presenting as male (ish) / androgynous / without raising too many eyebrows" lol. (hopefully that makes sense).  I can get away with clothes that are meant for girls, as long as there is enough of a masculine streak to it - for example I bought this recently and no one has batted an eyelid when I've worn it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NSKQHC4


(Omg it's super-cute on me! <3 )

What I couldn't get away with at this point is anything "blatantly feminine" (like this for example: http://www.themodestmomblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/7873.jpg), so things like skirts are probably out of the question (although there are "man-skirts"... so even then, I don't rule anything out lol )

Sooo, my question to all of you - where do I look for such things?  I've stumbled across a couple of bits like that jacket  I linked above, but I'm finding it difficult to track down any sites with a good load of stuff to browse through (mainly because I'm not entirely sure what to look for in the first place lol ).  Have any of you got any sites you get things like this from?  Any sites that cater for transgender clothing?  Brick-and-mortar shops (preferably in the south of the UK in or close to the home counties)? Any advice on items of clothing I could turn my attentions towards?

I mean, obviously at the end of the day, only I know what I like, and only I know what I can get away with, but what I need to know is where to start looking / what to start looking for / general inspiration.

Thanks in advance and *hugs* to all! <3

[RobynD]

Only in the last few years did i go from a "tomboy" androgynous style to a more feminine style, so i have a lot of experience in buying clothes that walk that line.

i have found out that a lot of things in the H&M store work for that style, on both sides of the store. Skinny jeans and boyfriend jeans, are something that will work well too. In the US we have retailers like LL bean, Lands End, and Eddie Bauer and their lines have a lot of things like oxford tops and sweaters that are unisex looking. I believe you have some of those stores online over there.

Some of those styles might not suit someone of your age though, but some no doubt will. For footwear i'd look at converses for casual, low heel ankle boots, and in summer sandals like Birkenstock. The outdoor retailers like North Face also have a lot of women's wear that looks more unisex. Light makeup like muted eyeliner and shiny lips can make you feel feminine but not really stand out much. Just some ideas there.

[sparrow]

I've taken to browsing pintrest.  You can browse hundreds of outfits and see what works for people.  I've discovered more common ground between gendered wardrobes than I expected.

I love the jacket!  It's got panache!  It also tells me that I shouldn't try to give you fashion advice.  My fashion target is "femdrogynous office drone."

For my PhD defense (monday, yes, I'm still bragging) I wanted to look nice but tone down the femininity a little.  I looked on pintrest until I found a style that could look good on me: button-down shirt under a sweater.  It's a more masculine style, but the sweater was a dark magenta and the button-down was translucent and I left the tails hanging out.  It worked for me.

[RobynD]

Pintrest is a great resource. Just search on outfits and terms like androgynous.

Another thing i did is spend a lot of time people watching, figuring out what women wear and looking for men that were dressing less masculine etc. You can learn a lot at crowded coffee shop for an afternoon.